Festive Caramel Reindeer Cupcakes | Blogmas Day 19

If you’ve read any of my Blogmas posts this year, you’ll know I love Christmas baking. I mean, I love baking all year round, but it’s definitely one of my favourite things to do during the festive season. Usually my go-to is a tray bake or cookies. Mint Aero rocky road and Terry’s Chocolate Orange cookies are my specialities, but this year I wanted to try something different. I wanted something cute and Christmassy that was going to be rich but light. So, I decided on caramel reindeer cupcakes!

For this recipe, I used a combination of a couple of existing recipes, but put my own twist on them. The main cake recipe was from Jane’s Patisserie (my absolute go-to for amazing recipes, most of what I make comes from here!) so check that out for the original. I had a quick look on Pinterest for some decoration ideas and found that pretzels for antlers was a really popular choice so I decided to adopt that and add a few other touches too. They tasted so good and it was really nice to have some festive treats in the run up to Christmas!

Recipe – Makes 12

For the cupcakes:

150g unsalted butter (room temperature)
150g light brown sugar
150g self raising flour
3 medium eggs
1 capful of caramel flavouring

For the icing:

150g of unsalted butter (room temperature)
350g of icing sugar
3 capfuls of caramel flavouring (add more or less to taste)

For the decoration:

Smarties – I bought four tubes and I had enough red smarties for 12 cupcakes. You could always have rainbow-nosed reindeer if you don’t want to buy so many tubes.
Chocolate buttons
Lightly salted pretzels – you can swap these out for sweet pretzels if you prefer but I love the sweet and salty mix.
Edible eye decorations

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180/160C Fan.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add in flour and eggs and beat again. Once mixed, add in caramel flavouring to taste.
4. Divide mixture between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes.
5. Leave to cool fully before moving onto decoration.
6. Mix the unsalted butter with the icing sugar together, adding a third of the icing sugar at a time.
7. Once mixed, add your caramel flavouring to taste. I added three capfuls.
8. If your cupcakes have risen unevenly, carefully take just the top off to create a flat surface for icing.
9. Once you have a flat cupcake top, carefully pipe your icing onto your fully cool cupcakes. Aim for a medium, flat layer to ensure the best looking decoration.
10. For decoration, arrange your pretzels, chocolate buttons, smarties and edible eyes to look like a reindeer and create your super cute festive treats!

Also, a little tip! If you have any leftover icing or want to get your children involved, you could decorate some digestive biscuits in the same format as the cupcakes. A great activity for children and a wonderful way to cut down on unnecessary food wastage.

And there you have it! Sweet reindeer cupcakes that taste delicious and are perfect for Christmas! I’d love to see your creation if you try this recipe out!